Karo's Raid
by DianetheOkami
Summary: Under commission from my illustrator. a rewrite will occur very shortly. [Storyline Alteration] Kirito never duels Heathclif, the population now stuck on floor 89. Thanks to Aiko for artwork and original character and DBDQuitDistress for submitting their OC
1. The Raiding Party

**-Backstory-**

Karo Takekura, a 17 year old heartbroken loner in high school. He absolutely enjoys the new game type, VRMMOs and a beta tester for the new Sword Art Online.

However, 3 days before the release, his girlfriend dumped him, revealing that she cheated on him with his best friend. Betrayed by the two people he trusted most,he bought the game as soon as it was released.

Karo seeked to escape reality, and did when he put on the NerveGear to reenter the world of SAO.

 **-The Raiding Party-**

A group of 7 high level beta testers gathered on the bar of one of the lower floors, including Karo.

The low level players watched in awe as the fierce and powerful high level players were gathering here. Karo looked around, remembering bad memories.

 _ **I don't love you anymore...**_

 _But... Why?_

 _ **Because I am actually in love with your best friend!**_

He shook his head, clearing any tears that formed. Though, now he had a crush on a cute girl named Asuna.

He was excited and anxious during the discussion of raiding the 79th floor, because he heard that Asuna would be part of the larger raiding party they were going to take part of.

Karo looked ahead, the others discussing about the unknown boss and other party members.

"Rumors is, it's a deadly giant that is nearly impossible to kill. Nobody has mapped even mapped half the floor yet"

Karo was inspecting his sword, paying little attention to whatever went on.

He noticed a few cracks, and decided he would get them repaired by Lizbeth before the fight

However, the meeting concluded with a messenger from the other parties declared that the fight would be in 4 hours.

Karo got up, and dashed towards the door. He needed to get to Lizbeth's, _now_


	2. A Visit to Lizbeth's

Karo slowly walked through the fields, dragging the tip of his signature weapon onto the grass, slicing through the dirt

His signature weapon was a fully black sword with white edges, a one-handed longsword.

The blade absorbed more light than reflect it, resembling a dimly shining shadow sword.

He thought back to the discussion…

" _Hey Karo! Asuna is going to be at our raid!"_

" _S-S-So?"_

He snickered, remembering how all of them laughed when he got flustered.

The truth is, he knew every one of them outside of SAo.

They were his best friends since the very beginning, and they were in this mess together.

Karo finally reached Lizbeth's shop, he was looking to repair his sword before the major boss fight.

He pushed open the door, Lizbeth warmly smiling upon his entrance.

"Maintenance?"

"Maintenance, polish, and repair"

"Alright!"

She grinned as Karo handed her a few coins and his sword.

She immediately started pounding his sword with her hammer.

The cracks slowly disappeared with every hit, until there was nothing.

Lizbeth cleaned it, sharpened it, and applied a black polish to it.

She returned the sword to Karo, who slashed it a few times then put it back into the sheath on his back.

"Black Midnight is back to it's former glory"

He walked out, waving at Lizbeth while he did.

However, he started to dash as soon as he realized the raid was in less than two hours


	3. Boss Fight

We all stood in front of the large, heavy doors that directly lead to the boss.

We were lucky enough to be able to map the room and send the data back via a single messenger.

Karo looked around, spotting Asuna among the crowd.

She was smiling, resting her head on Kirito's right shoulder.

Karo smiled too, even though he was jealous of Kirito.

One of his friends bumped his arm, nodding towards the doors.

They were opening!

The two doors parted, the raiding party rushing in, along with a few others.

The dim light shone on a large stone and metal monster, Karo scanning it.

He identified it as "The Colossus"

It's weapon was a large, heavy two-handed mace.

The giant flung it, hitting a complete party of seven. All 7 were killed on impact, the surrounding 5 other players severely hurt by the shockwave.

Karo quickly unsheathed his sword, charging alongside Kirito and Asuna.

The swords quickly connected with the boss, the rest of the party trying to get in as many hits as possible as well.

However, after about 10 minutes of vigorous slashing, stabbing, and most of the party being wiped out, he noticed it's health.

The bars were all still green, the giant barely taking any damage at all.

"Kirito! Asuna!"

"What?!"

"The Colossus has high physical defense. Use all your skills towards its weaknesses at the joints!"

They all nodded, sharing the information with the rest of the party.

However, as soon as the colossus crumbled and collapsed in defeat, a group appeared.

About 36 players, wearing a hood and an infamous tatoo on their arms.

A Laughing Coffin ambush!


	4. Last Stand

Karo's expression quickly changed from one of victory to one of sheer disgust.

Laughing Coffin was a player killing group that had already claimed the lives of too many.

They ambushed their party, who was charging forward with the front line clearers.

The remaining 30 of their raiding group, including Karo's party, were no match against the now staggering number which grew of LC members in an ambush.

Karo looked back, at the frightened Asuna and stunned Kirito.

He wished to protect them, but quickly snapped out of a daze when the ambush party charged into them, killing two forwards.

Karo unsheathed Black Midnight, dimly shining in the light of the boss room.

He charged once again with his party, crossing swords and slicing enemies.

The boss room was soon filled with the sounds of swords clashing and shields banging, nobody yet being killed.

"We got them!"

"They won't be taking us in this ambush!"

"Keep pushing forward, everybody keep some healers behind to get us some support"

Karo barked orders, his party following them and yelling out suggestions as well to others.

However, one by one, the party slowly fell apart.

He looked to the side, and saw infinitely many blue polygons and flashes of light appearing.

 _Fallen players_

There was still almost as many LC in the ambush, but now only about 22 of their original raiding party are left.

Karo made a grim realization, downcast for a moment before he felt a blade slice through his arm, aiming for Asuna who was beside Kirito

Karo quickly reacted, sending Black Midnight directly through the attacker, instantly killing him before he could reach them.

At one last order, he yelled to his party

"We will hold them off and let the remaining party escape!"

They seemed shocked for a moment, but then they nodded and they yelled it to the rest of the group.

He pulled aside one of his party, a girl named Freya who was a best friend of Asuna, and spoke to her amidst the clash of swords while the party slowly moved back, defending against the ambush

"What are you going to do, Karo?"

"Tell everyone not in our party to teleport to Starting Town, we will hold them off and join them shortly."

She nodded, her hair still a mess from fast movements of sword slashing and stabbing.

She repeated the order, and soon blue flashes of light soon appeared everywhere as players teleported out into starting town, leaving only Karo's party.

After a while, Karo gave a last order.

"Everyone! Teleport out! I will handle them."

They silently nodded, continuing to block the oncoming attacks, their teleport crystals in hand, except Freya.

"I don't have one, Karo-kun!"

He tossed his to her, before telling her a very specific request

"Please tell Asuna-san that I loved her."

She stumbled back in shock, her Zweihanders in her hands, still being used.

She put away one of her swords, and prepared the crystal.

"Goodbye, Karo-kun."

Once more, a bright flash of blue light appeared and faded away as Karo was left in the boss room, holding off the onslaught of Laughing Coffin.


	5. The Teleport Gate

The party stayed by the teleport gate on the first floor, before finally a few figures started popping out.

Slowly, one by one, Karo's party appeared, with a delay of about 5 minutes each time one appeared.

However, only 6 figures appeared.

The last one that arrived was Freya, a best friend to Asuna, but she was very downcast.

She immediately walked to Asuna, Asuna just asking,

"Where's Karo?"

"Karo-kun didn't make it. He sacrificed himself to save as many people as he could, he also said one last thing."

"Which was?"

"Karo-kun said he loved Asuna-san…"


End file.
